Course Correcting
by Unidentified Pineapples
Summary: What will Daniel tell young Charlotte about her future? Will he tell her she is destined to die? Or will he leave it all up to fate?


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Disclaimer: I do not own LOST. If I did Sayid wouldn't have shot little Ben. Sad.

**Author's Note: Okay, so this is a two-shot (is that even a thing?). I had originally planned this to be a oneshot, but I found that the ending would've been rushed if I had kept it a oneshot, and I really want you to be able to understand the ending. Anyway, please please please let me know what you think! Please do not be afraid to tell me if I should change anything or if you found anything confusing. I can't get better if you don't help me understand what needs fixing! My main dilemma is that I think this could be slightly confusing, and I really don't want it to come off that way. Please help me with this. Feedback is appreciated!**

**Okay, so _italics _= flashback, and normal font = normal time. I hope that helps. Enjoy!**

* * *

Daniel Faraday sat on the cold, hard Dharma bench, the crisp morning air whipping against his already wind-burned face. Had the watch fastened tightly around his wrist been set to 1974 Dharma-time, it would've read 8:16 a.m. - the precise time at which young Charlotte exited her house every morning with her mom at her side and took their morning stroll around the complex.

He had sat here everyday on this same bench at 8:16 since the day he first arrived here…how long had it been? Five days, a week, two weeks ago? Daniel had lost count, because nothing mattered anymore. Nothing mattered now that he knew he existed in the same time as Charlotte. It didn't matter that she was only three, didn't matter that she didn't recognize him, didn't matter that she didn't know he loved her. She was alive and smiling and _breathing_. She moved with the same certainty he had come to know in her older counterpart, and her eyes were just as beautiful and dazzling then as they were now.

* * *

_Daniel sat on the patio chair along with his companions - Miles, Juliet and Jin - at the heart of the Dharma Initiative. This was the moment he had been working toward his entire life, the very obsession he had been researching for the last 20 years. And here he found himself, thrown into the middle of the secret organization in its heyday. Every equation, every calculation, every formula he had ever worked through had all been toward this exact m__oment. Here he was._

_And yet he felt nothing. No victory, no tiny ounce of pride, no sense of accomplishment. __Because, truly, he had failed. Without Charlotte here to experience this moment with him, none of it was worth it. Nothing was worth the price of losing Charlotte. His whole body was numb._

_Sitting in this chair, surrounded by his companions on this warm night, Daniel was faintly aware of a conversation occurring around him, but he was uninterested; completely lost in his own thoughts, his own mind. Charlotte was gone. The reality of it was finally sinking in._

"_Daniel, no more flash?"_

_It took Daniel a second to process the question that had clearly been posed to him. He wasn't too sure who had stated the query, and it was too much of an effort for Dan to muster up the energy to turn his head to look at the person. So he kept staring straight ahead and replied with his answer._

"_No. No more flash. The record is spinning again." And as his mind drifted back to the memory of the face of the beautiful crimson-haired woman he loved, he added, "And we're just not on the song we want to be on."_

_Daniel had cried so much in the last few hours and was not afraid to admit it, but at the thought of Charlotte again - her cold, lifeless body lying on the ground - he was sure that tears were about to stain his cheeks again. He forced himself to breathe, to stay as calm as possible, to focus on something else._

"_Come on, love."_

_He looked up at the sound of the distinctly British voice and caught sight of a woman ushering her young daughter across the sidewalk. As Dan stared at the familiar little red-haired girl, realization dawned on his face, and his voice caught in his throat. It couldn't be, there was no way, how was it possible? Dan was plagued by a million thoughts at once, yet somehow, as the energetic girl turned and waved at him, it all made sense._

"_Charlotte."_

* * *

He sat on this bench every morning just to get a glimpse of her, to feel relief flood through his veins at knowing there was still a chance she could survive. That he - Dan - could save her. That maybe, just maybe, they could be together again. This was the hope that Dan clung to every morning at 8:16 as he watched young Charlotte totter across the dew-stained grass with her mother, unaware of the dangers she may face in the years ahead.

* * *

_"Hold on. Hold on. Stay, stay stay with me," Dan chided as Charlotte experienced another bout of coughing - this one worse than the last. "Stay. Okay? It's going to be fine. Everything's going to be okay. I've got a plan… I've got a plan." As the words spilled out of his mouth, not even Dan was sure he believed them. But he had to comfort Charlotte, give her some kind of hope to cling to as she lay on the forest floor, nearing death._

_She looked so helpless, so frightened, so weak. It broke Dan's heart to see her like this, knowing he could do nothing but watch._

_He brushed a strand of scarlet hair from her face. If it were possible, her hair looked even more crimson than usual due to the green foliage beneath her head. Gosh, she was beautiful and yet so afraid._

"_When we were back at the hatch, I talked to Desmond. I told him to find my mother." As Dan said the words, he knew he was trying to convince himself as much as Charlotte that there was still hope. "She can help us, Charlotte. She _will_ help us."_

_As the tears fell from Charlotte's eyes, Dan could see that she looked as uncertain as he felt. "How can your mother help us?"_

"_She _can_. She--"_

_Another bout of coughing from the anthropologist and fear started to creep into every cell of Dan's body. He quickly grabbed a tissue to soak up the blood sliding down Charlotte's lip. No, he couldn't lose her this way. Not now. Help would come. Hang in there just a little longer. Please._

_Suddenly, the coughing stopped, and a look of serenity came over Charlotte's face. Daniel smiled slightly as she looked at him._

"_What?"_

"_I'm not allowed to have chocolate before dinner." She giggled. Then a tremor pulsed through her body and she became still, her eyes unfocused, her breath stopped._

"_Charlotte," Dan whispered to her, willing her to look up at him. "Charlotte… Charlotte… No."_

_She was gone._

* * *

But this morning, this morning was different. Daniel knew that after this morning - as he sat there on the cold Dharma bench - things would be different no matter what happened. He had been fighting an internal battle with himself lately; a battle that had kept the physicist up these past few nights wondering. Just wondering at the possibilities, the choices laid before him.

All his devoted research and studies had proved to him that no one could change the past, and that included Charlotte's death. Whatever happened happened, and no matter what Dan tried to do or not do, Charlotte would die no matter what.

But just _seeing_ young Charlotte's face had given him hope that he could change the course of events, that he _could_ save her.

* * *

_"I won't - I won't do it. I won't…tell her. I won't."_

"_Daniel? You okay?" Dan looked up to see the blonde lady - what was her name? - Juliet kneeling beside him on the earthen jungle floor. What was she doing here? Didn't she understand Charlotte was gone? He had to tell her - she had to know that he would try to change this._

"_I'm not gonna do it… I'm not gonna tell her." Juliet nodded as if she understood him, and this gave Dan the tiniest ounce of relief. Not enough to relieve any amount of sorrow, but it felt better that she knew he wouldn't tell Charlotte._

"_Daniel, where's Charlotte?" Juliet reached up to wipe away a tear from Dan's cheek as she said this. This confused him. Didn't she understand? Couldn't she see what had happened?_

"_She's not here," he managed to get out through quiet sobs. She still stared at him, not comprehending. Why was this so difficult? "She… she's gone." He couldn't look at Juliet anymore, only think of Charlotte. The pain so was deep, yet his entire being was numb. How could she be gone? And why couldn't Juliet understand what had happened?_

"_Where?"_

"_She's d-dead… She's dead. There was another flash, and - and she was… she was just gone." The words felt sour on his tongue as the awful truth hit him again. "Her body just… disappeared… She moved on and we stayed." He squeezed his eyes shut as he fought back more silent sobs. This was too hard for him. He just couldn't bear it._

"_I'm so sorry," Juliet said, reaching her hand out to touch Dan's in sympathy._

"_Hold on, wait a minute," came the Southerner's voice from beside Dan. He didn't even looks up at the guy whose name also evaded him. "We stayed? We're not traveling through time anymore? You saying it's over?"_

"_Of course it's over," Dan replied somewhat bitterly. "Wherever we are now - _when_ever we are now… we're here for good."_

_When the Southern man - James? - didn't pose anymore trivial questions to Dan, his mind drifted back to Charlotte. "I won't do it… I _won't_ - I'm not… I'm - I'm…"_

_Juliet took Daniel's face in both of her hands and looked him sympathetically in the eyes. "Okay." Then she stood up and left Dan to his thoughts._

"_I won't - I won't… I'm not gonna do it… I won't tell her…"_

* * *

These were the thoughts that had plagued Dan at night as he lie there thinking of his options. He had been good. He hadn't told young Charlotte what would happen. He hadn't been that frightening man she had said she remembered. He had kept his distance and watched her from afar.

But today was different. He wouldn't just sit here and watch her dance through the complex with her mother as he had every morning. Today he would approach her, and events would either change for the better or continue in the manner fate had in store and play out exactly the same as before.

* * *

_Wong. Wong. Wong._

_They had not been in the presence of the Dharma Initiative for two hours and already a Hostile was intruding. This couldn't be good._

_Daniel and his companions were corralled into one of the Dharma member's houses and told not to leave. The door was locked behind them and the owner of said humble abode held a shotgun for protection. Under normal circumstances, Dan would be terrified, but these weren't normal circumstances. Not five minutes ago, Dan had seen young Charlotte - very much alive and happy - skip across the sidewalk in front of him with her mother at her side. Hostiles meant nothing to him now. Charlotte was alive._

"_Daniel," came a heavily accented voice from beside him. Dan looked up to see the Korean man - Jin - staring at him uncertainly. "That was Charlotte outside?"_

_Just hearing her name made Dan smile. "Yes - yes that was Charlotte." Saying it out loud made it real for him. She was _here_, with him, probably just a few houses away, _breathing_._

_Jin, however, did not smile. If it was possible, his face took on a look of urgency and his voice became filled with fervency. "You tell her to leave island. She cannot stay here. 'This place is death'."_

"_Do you _want_ us all to get killed?" The lady with her grip on the shotgun came striding over to Jin in a manner of authority. "Keep your mouth _shut_."_

_The lady walked away, and Jin - having spoken his mind to Dan - turned toward the window and watched the Hostile slowly make his way into the complex, but Dan was no longer paying attention. Jin's last words had struck a chord with him. One of Charlotte's last requests was that Jin make sure Sun never came back to the island. Did that mean that Charlotte wanted Dan to convince her younger self to leave the island and just ignore her longing desire to return? But how could he do that when he promised himself that he wouldn't tell her what would happen?_

* * *

Daniel's hands shook with uncertainty as he saw the door to Charlotte's house glide open and watched the radiant child emerge out into the morning sun with her mother right behind her. A cascade of nerves shot through Dan's stomach as he stood up.

Now was the moment of truth.

* * *

_It was another crisp morning in the Dharma Initiative, and again Dan had found himself on this bench watching Charlotte and her mother take their morning stroll. They had only been here three days, and yet Dan had already calculated the exact time at which they left their house every morning. It was like clockwork._

_Dan felt so calm as he watched her scamper across the grass, her crimson ringlets billowing in the breeze. Neither he nor Charlotte had a care in the world at that point. Everything was bliss._

"_Mind if I sit down, hoss?" James's Southern drawl came from beside Dan, breaking him from his reverie._

"_Oh - sure." The physicist moved over, giving James ample room to take a seat beside him._

_Daniel turned back to watch young Charlotte again, and a few moments of silence passed between the two men on the bench. Dan had never actually take the time to talk with James about… anything actually, and - since they had arrived here - LaFleur had more important things to worry about than sharing a bench with Daniel. So why was he here?_

"_Jin tells me that bundle of joy over there is Charlotte. That true?"_

_Dan felt no need to respond. He knew his silence would be enough of an answer for James as any verbal response would be. He continued to watch Charlotte._

"_You gonna tell her what happens, whiz-kid?" The casual airy tone in James's voice had disappeared, only to be replaced by a tone of knowing and something else that Dan couldn't quite place. Regret? "You gonna be the one to break it to her that coming back home will be the biggest mistake of her life? And risk losing her? Risk never meeting her? You gonna put your heart on the line to save her?"_

_Daniel wasn't sure what to say. He hadn't gotten that far yet, hadn't even begun to work out what he would say to her - _if _he should say anything to her. He was still completely absorbed in Charlotte's very existence. He was sure nothing else mattered._

"_I… I don't know."_

_James gave the closest thing to a sympathetic smile as was possible for the rugged Southerner. "I don't envy you."_

_Daniel turned away from the man now known as LaFleur and focused on watching Charlotte, of soaking up every second he had with her. His mind, however, kept drifting back to the situation at hand - the Catch-22. What should he do? Tell Charlotte she would die if she ever came back to the island? That she should never come back home after so many years of searching and wondering? Or do nothing, have events play out and let fate take over? What was the proper solution?_

* * *

He crossed the sidewalk to the porch of Charlotte's house in fifteen steps. Fifteen agonizingly _long_ steps, during which he stared straight ahead, never breaking his focus from Charlotte's mother. He could feel Charlotte's young eyes on him, many questions forming in her mind, but he dared not look at her. He didn't think he could go through with this if he did.

At Charlotte's curious look, her mother turned to face Daniel. Had he not known that he was in 1974 and that young Charlotte was standing beside him, he could've easily mistaken this lady for the woman he loved. To his wonder and astonishment, she had the same shade of crimson hair, the same facial structure, and - Dan was sure of it - the same pattern of freckles that danced across her face. The resemblance was quite literally breathtaking. He had to catch his voice in his throat to prevent it from slipping away.

"Ms. Lewis?"

* * *

"_Where are you gong?"_

_Dan froze with his hand on the doorknob, clearly not expecting Miles to be up at this hour. He had tried to slip away quietly so as not to wake up his new roommate, but he should've known it would be futile. Miles always seemed to have a keen sense of what was taking place around him, and this made Dan feel slightly uneasy._

_He turned around to face Miles, abandoning all hope of stealth._

"_I - I'm gonna go see Charlotte." For half a second Dan actually considered lying to Miles, to tell him that he had planned on meeting Jin or Juliet somewhere, but knew it was useless. He was a bad liar, especially if caught off guard like this._

"_You mean you're gonna watch her from that bench like you do every morning?" It was surprising how blunt Miles could be sometimes, and Dan almost wished they didn't have to share a house together. Out of all the people on the Freighter, Miles had been the one Dan avoided most - well, he and Keamey._

"_Yeah."_

_It was 8:10; if Dan didn't want to miss Charlotte he would have to leave soon. He wished Miles would just make his snarky comment already and leave him to himself._

"_How long are you gonna sit out there watching her before you finally tell her?… You _are_ gonna tell her, right?"_

_How could he ask that? Hadn't he known this was the same question that tormented him every time he saw her radiant smile or beautiful azure eyes? Wasn't it hard enough to have to watch her die once without making a decision that would ultimately decide her fate? Whether he told her or not could very well determine if Charlotte lived or died. Didn't he see how hard this was?_

"Should_ I? _Should _I tell her, Miles?"_

_Miles held up his hands defensively and took a step back. "Hey, this is your decision, man. Don't drag me into this."_

_After one last look at Dan, Miles dropped his hands, turned and withdrew into the recesses of their Dharma home, leaving Daniel to stand there even more uncertain than before._

* * *

"Can I help you?" Charlotte's mother smiled at Dan so pleasantly and with such a genuine manner about her that he almost regretted what he was about to say.

"Yes. My name is Daniel Faraday - I arrived her with the ship from Tahiti… although I suppose none of that is completely relevant at this time…" He felt his stomach drop; he was stalling. This wasn't right, he couldn't do this. What if he was making a mistake? What if Charlotte _died_ because of him? Should he turn back now and walk away? There was still time; he hadn't told her much yet.

He forced himself to take a breath and relax. The decision was made. He was going to go through with this. It was now or never…

* * *

**Author's Note: I hope that wasn't too confusing. If it was, let me know and I'll do my best to correct it. Please give me feedback! Part II will be up soon (I hope!). My computer is a bit dodgy at the moment, and I'm not sure when it will be fixed. But I hope to have part II up soon. Feedback please!! Oh, and vote for your favorite LOST character in the poll on my profile! Show Dan and Charlotte some love! Bye-bye!**


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